Unofficial news and tips about Google

August 21, 2010

Google Live Search: See Search Results as You Type

Google tests a new search interface that updates the results as you type a query. In this experiment, you never have to press Enter or click on the "Search" button to see the results because Google constantly retrieves the results for your query.

While this interface has the advantage that you can refine your search faster, the constant refreshing can be annoying if you don't need help. Rob Ousbey calls this experiment "live updating Google search results", Google uses the word "streaming", while others may call it instant search or incremental search. Google probably wants to morph the search box into a query builder with instant preview.

The experiment is not available in Google Labs, but you can try a similar interface at Google Alerts. Type some keywords, click on "preview results" and every time you change the search terms, Google Alerts shows a preview. There's also Keyboardr, a site that uses Google AJAX API to shows results as you type.

Update: Another user noticed the changes. When you visit Google's homepage and start typing your query, Google moves the search box at the top of the page and displays the results. "Open the Google page and start typing. Previously, the screen didn't shift. Now, though, as soon as you start typing, Google shifts the search box to the top of the page, and displays ads to the right and distracting search results below." The new UI can be disabled by clicking on "turn off streaming" next to the search box.